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Published: August 22nd 2007
Sofia Park
Although the town did seem to lack any planning or even a centre, it had some lovely parks.Further east we go, into Bulgaria. The night train was quite quiet, which suited us as we ended up with our own berth.
First impressions of Sofia was of a large sprawl of run down buildings, not completely fair when we got to the centre, there are some nice buildings and parks, and a lot of interesting shops. But the city seemed to lack a real heart. Still we ended up enjoying ourselves. Found an indian restaurant which satisfied our cravings for a curry.
Rather than spening too much time in Sofia, we headed to the old capital of Veliko Tarnavo, this is in central Bulgaria and is useful for getting to Romania as well. Veliko Tarnovo was lovely and very cheap. The hostel we stayed in has only been open eight days and was very nice.
A word on hostels, sometimes I much prefer to stay in a hostel over a hotel. A hotel seems like an option if you want a bit more luxury, but often this is not the case. Hotels are not nessesarily nice or cleaner. All the hostels we have stayed in have been really clean (except one in Bratislava). Another reason to
Veliko Tarnovo
Overlooking the old capital of Bulgaria. choose a hotel is for privacy, but most hostels do offer private rooms sometimes with their own bathroom. Those times we have stayed in hotels, we have felt isolated, while in a hostel we tend to meet people, and have a good laugh. One last point is in regards to services. A hotel may offer services at a price, but we have found that hostels are much more providing. Due to fierce competition hostels, these days are very good, usually we get free internet and free wireless, breakfast, and sometimes even free dinner. The staff are usually friendlier as well, and are a great help in figuring out what to do.
The hostel we stayed in Veliko Tarnovo, was lovely and gave us breakfast and dinner and free internet, our room had its own bathroom. All for just over 20 euros.
We explored the town and the impressive castle complex, and then went for a long walk in the hills to a monastery. It was very hot (around 40 degrees and after a couple of kilometres up a hill, we started to wonder if this was a good idea. A little bit more walking through the long grass
and we both realised that these are perfect conditions for snakes, and again we wondered if this was a good idea. Climbing a rocky ridge and I spotted a snake, just a little one (probably dangerous), but a distance away (too close for me), hiding under an outcrop (lulling us into a sense of false security). After that we were noticably jumpy, and when I heard a large rustling in the bush next to me I feared the worst. But no, it was just a bloody tortoise, not very scary at all. Still the bugger gave me such a fright I almost shat me daks.
The monastery was interesting when we arrived, it was our first look into an orthodox church, and the monastery came complete with an aged monk with a hunchback. Perfect, would have tried to have a chat with him, but we knew there was no way he would know english.
On and on, this time north, we boarded a filthy turkish train towards Romania. The train attendants bundled us and any other foreigner to one end of the train, not sure if this was for our or the locals benefit.
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